Tea for Three
by Lacygrey
Summary: Is it only ever just about Go?
1. Chapter 1

**Tea for Three**

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"_Another game? Another game?" _

That was what Shindou said to her, again and again, like an echo.

But what did such a question really mean?

Did it mean that she needed to work hard, to play as many games as possible to become strong? Surely. But, in the end, a question like that meant what the hearer wanted it to.

What _did_ she want it to mean?

Beyond the glass doors of the institute the wind howled, and vicious gusts threw fallen leaves every-which-way in turmoil.

She wanted to turn pro, that was sure. That was why she had decided to put Go first; not try for college yet but give Go her best shot. And if she wanted time for fun as well? Was that reasonable?

"_Another game, Nasu?"_

'Nasu,' her new nickname – not quite her given name but a bit more than her family name – made her feel like someone different.

Someone who, after hours of playing, had chosen another way to answer that question than simply to _nigiri_ once more.

The door clanged shut as a troop of _insei _chattered their way in followed by a gust of chilly air. If she was waiting now, it was to see him and stop her mind from whirling. It seemed a century since this morning. The voices of the _insei_ faded into childish nonsense, as though she was hearing them across a chasm, just like the careless talk of her girlfriends. Perhaps she was simply tired.

"_It's hard to go out with normal kids."_

Didn't she just know it. But to find someone who was happy for her when she won, someone whose strength and confidence boosted her own, someone who didn't tell her "to be a realist" or encourage her to give up, someone she could share Go and who would invest hours and hours just playing her. And she'd found it.

"_Why are you doing all this for me, Shindou-kun?"_ she'd asked, when, in truth, she thought she already knew.

Putting her hand up to his cheek she'd slid it over his skin, where a roughness of stubble betrayed the passage of adolescence. When he didn't draw away she'd stretched her fingers into the soft, dark, natural part of his hair and, as though claiming a prize for her hard work, pulled his face to hers.

She was his _senpai_, though in so many ways he blazed ahead of her. The inconsistency of his early Go had been replaced by brilliance, backed up by dedication and untiring patience. A creature of contradictions: a fashion victim who loved video arcades and fast food but who was fascinated by history and Heian literature! He was a topic of conversation, argument and hero worship among the_ insei_. And still, behind all that, she had found someone else, as though with her daring she had released some sort of genie — unrestrained, generous, boisterously affectionate…

"Nase-san?"

She gave a start. Touya Akira was hovering by her elbow, shadow-like in the formal attire he wore for teaching.

"Are you waiting for Shindou?"

She nodded.

"I need to have a word with him too about something, but he's still upstairs with the study group. May I wait with you?"

.

They waited, the shadows outside lengthening as the afternoon wore on.

What use was there in Shindou having a cell phone, Nase fumed to herself, if he left it at home when she most needed to contact him? She had to forgive him though - he'd only just gotten a cell and hadn't yet gotten in the habit of keeping it with him.

What could Touya want to see Shindou about? Go, it could only be about Go. He looked as pristine as always. Just how often did he have to have his hair cut to keep it so neat? A hard straight line, never curling under at the ends. He shook back the strands from his face and turned toward her.

"How many wins does that make?" he asked. He didn't need to say he meant the Pro exam.

"Eight."

Saying that had made her feel good up to now. After all she'd had eight straight wins undefeated. But then and there, saying it to Touya Akira who had simply breezed though the pro exam, including his game against her, when he was four years younger, made her accomplishment seem pitifully little.

Touya's Go was frightening. It was as if the boy lived and breathed the game, distancing himself from the rest of the world. He was polite, reserved and, except when discussing Go with Shindou, extraordinarily calm. He was also unwaveringly smart but disastrously unfashionable. This was what happened when someone let Go totally rule their life.

"Eight wins!" he echoed. "Excellent!"

She knew he meant it good-naturedly, but it was ridiculous. Touya was her better, just like he was better than all of their generation. Nase had hardly ever played Touya. It was always Shindou who played Touya, even when she was there, renewing an eternal conflict that spanned their many games ‒ a story she wasn't a part of, one that had begun even before she'd met Shindou.

"Would you like to play while we wait?" he asked.

That surprised her. It was much nearer to a real compliment. Although she wouldn't play her best right now, she half-wanted to take this opportunity to play someone else, especially someone this strong. Then again, she would surely humiliate herself and that would ruin her confidence. She couldn't decide; exhaustion was starting to win.

"If you're tired we could go for tea instead," he suggested.

She hadn't thought he was that perceptive. Touya so often seemed distant that she wouldn't have guessed he could know how others felt. Strange, how circumstances reversed the roles. Touya had to be persuaded leave the _goban_ to eat sometimes.

"Why don't you bring him out with us?" she'd urged Shindou more than once. She used to think how thin he always looked, how little he ate; for he never ate during a game and he played games back-to-back all day long.

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	2. Chapter 2

They went to the _Jade Dewdrop_, a small tea shop not far from the Ki-in, leaving word with the institute reception to tell Shindou where they were.

"My parents used to bring me here sometimes," Touya said.

That figured. The atmosphere was calm, refined, traditional. The tea shop had understated furnishings. Grey-green blinds in muted tones hid the traffic from view. The blinds matched the cushions and were echoed paler in the color of the walls; someone had chosen it all very carefully…

"Do you study with Shindou every night?" he asked.

"Yes, whenever we can. And I've my teacher still and the study group." She thought of the study group, the _insei_ friends, each one by one spreading their wings and passing the pro exam or going their own way. Now she was left as the oldest of the _insei_. But this was to be her year. After all, it had to be.

The tea, when it came, served by a waitress in a tailored sage green uniform, was refreshing. It was wet, yet had a lingering background dryness that was slightly bitter, in a refined, understated way - like everything in the tea shop.

"He's late, isn't he?" Touya sighed.

He seemed tired as well, now she looked at him properly. His posture was slacker than usual, skin paler, hair duller.

"He must have got into some discussion…he can go on for hours." She smiled.

"Especially about Shusaku." Touya nodded.

That she understood. With Shindou coaching her she was becoming a Shusaku expert herself. She even knew many games by the 'new Shusaku' - Sai of the internet. Touya had never mentioned Sai within her hearing, not even to Shindou. But surely he too must be fascinated. They all were, particularly Waya, who didn't hide his curiosity, and Ogata-sensei who'd cornered her once and through casual conservation probed as to whether Sai might be 'one of their crowd.'

"I hope they told him where we'd g‒"

But at that moment the door opened and in bounded Shindou Hikaru in a flurry of wind-blown blond hair and bright colors, like a living antidote to orderliness and calm.

"Nasu!"

Her pulse reacted instantly. For a second she was aware only of him and her heart pounding in her ears while she searched his face for something to reassure herself. He was all smile and rough bangs and she caught nothing more in his expression, but saw him like a bright moving picture against the static set of the tea room.

The waitress barely had time to offer her polite greetings to this potential new customer before he'd bounded over to them.

He hugged Nase almost playfully and drew back, lacing his fingers between hers and squeezing: a simple enough action, an affectionate thing, but it brought back with it to her a flood of sensations from the last time they'd been alone together. She felt herself flush.

When she had him close enough that no one else could possibly hear, she whispered "Hikar-u, I've been waiting for you." Then she pulled back, smiled warmly as she could look him directly in the eyes. There she found, finally, the assurance she sought in the wisps of vulnerability that remained there.

"I've been looking for you everywhere." His words breathed comfort into her.

She took notice of the rest of the world again. It looked like nothing had changed the placid backdrop. People around them talked and drank tea. Touya hadn't moved a muscle and his expression hadn't changed either, except he was politely looking away from them and at the teapot. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she spied the waitress backing away smiling, clasping her hands together nervously and busily attending to the other customers. Public displays of affection were clearly not the sort of behaviour they were used to here.

It made her intensely conscious of her physical reactions. She was sure she was blushing and that everyone could see it. She wished urgently that Shindou and she were somewhere else or that everyone and everything else would just up and disappear.

"Where were you?" Shindou asked. "I was looking for you everywhere in the Ki-in." He looked from her to Touya and back again.

Touya threw a cold look at both of them. The sudden change in him made Nase flinch. She took a turn at examining the teapot instead, noticing trivially how the binding on its handle was the same pale beige as the cups.

"I only knew you'd left because I ran into Ogata-Sensei who said he'd seen you go." Shindou sounded exasperated. "I searched the whole neighbourhood. When you weren't at the NcDo I went to Mama Yamada's. Then I didn't know where to look. I didn't think I'd find you hanging out somewhere so boring."

The waitress, who had her back turned but was clearly still listening, stiffened slightly. The woman then glanced at the customers she was serving to discreetly check if they'd heard.

"But Mama Yamada's is a bar," said Touya.

"Ogata-sensei said that‒"

"We thought that at the Ki-in they would have said," Nase interrupted. She didn't want to hear Ogata-sensei's speculations. She would put this straight with Shindou later.

"Nase-san is tired." Touya's eyes never left Shindou. "I would have called you to tell you where we were if you'd had your phone on you."

"My phone?" He stopped. "How did you know I'd just got a cell phone?"

There was a silence. Touya wasn't just looking at Shindou, he was glaring. She felt his reaction ‒ he gave a tiny start then straightened defensively.

"Your mother rang me last night because you forgotten your cell phone at home." Touya spoke slowly. "She said you didn't have to worry about having lost it or anything," he added, with a humourless laugh.

"What! How?" Shindou said in a panicked voice. "Why would she‒?"

"You were 'playing Go with friends' last night and 'most probably sleeping over.' No?"

Shindou's face drained of color. "But…"

"You hadn't told her which friends. And I think she would have gone though all the Go players you know." Touya served himself more tea, slowly and deliberately. "Except that she called me before anyone else."

Nase gasped involuntarily. She too had used that same half-truth – the 'going out with friends - most probably sleeping over'. Shindou was looking at Touya as though waiting for a sentence to fall.

"And you said…?"

"That you'd lost horribly and had already gone to bed in a sulk."

Touya Akira had actually lied. Did that mean he knew…?

"Whereas I quite positively saw you getting on a train heading out of town," Touya went on, keeping his gaze on Shindou as he whispered, "Together."

First came the wave of acute embarrassment that… Yes, he did know. But then came relief and the realisation that all she wanted was to thank Touya as quickly and quietly as possible and then just go home.

But then Shindou said, "You…followed…us? You were stalking us?"

She couldn't believe it. How could he be so dense? Touya had helped them. They'd gotten away with it. And now here was Shindou completely missing the point, too geared up for a scrap with Touya to stop himself. She leaned closer to Shidou, breathing his name softly close to his ear, but he ignored her. Touya had protected them and their stupid secret, but it was like war had already been declared.

Shindou leaned forward over the table towards Touya and hissed, "That's it, isn't it?"

A second waitress had appeared and she and her colleague were closely observing the scene from a discreet distance.

"Shindou, you have no idea." Touya slammed down the teacup on the table, splashing its contents over a wide area. "I spent half the night worrying about whether I should have lied to your mother on your behalf. If that was 'what friends do.'"

He was giving the whole room the benefit of his words. Nase felt herself blushing deeply. She kept her eyes on Touya now because it was safer than accidentally catching the eye of either of the waitresses.

"The other half of the night—" Touya raised his voice still further— "I spent worrying that I was wrong and that both of you were lying murdered somewhere…and it was all my fault." He balled his fists and spat, "You could have told me."

"I didn't want you to have to lie," Shindou countered.

Saying this did nothing to calm the situation; in fact it only seemed to make matters worse. Touya sprung to his feet with such speed that the table tipped, not all the way but enough to send the iron teapot flying.

"But I ended up doing that anyway," Touya cried.

The teapot crashed to the floor, spilling the rest of its contents and making a noise none of the other clients could ignore. The two waitresses went running after it, pulling precious cushions out of the rapidly spreading pool of tea.

Another woman had appeared from back kitchen area. She wore a similar uniform to the waitresses but in a deeper shade, no doubt the manageress.

The woman cast Nase a frown, as though she was the cause of the ruckus. She was coming towards them, but stopped short as another couple who had been there before them rose to leave. Neither said a word, though she apologised profusely as she helped them with their coats.

"Shindou, did you think I would betray your trust?" Touya said, finally breaking eye contact and taking in the mess. "Or you simply didn't want me to know." He sighed, looking away from them, as though embarrassed or suddenly aware of the offence he could have caused Nase. It was as though he was trying to fold away his anger. "I just hope I don't have to see your mother any time soon."

"Thank you, Touya" whispered Nase, trying to gain his attention, hoping to repair things a little…

With the other clients gone, the manageress moved towards them.

"Gentlemen…" she said gravely, pulling herself up to her full height, which was a little below Touya's lapels. "It would be preferable that you have your discussion elsewhere." But she might as well not have been there.

"What is it with you, Touya?" he muttered. "You're not still sore about the Meijin league preliminaries?" Shindou's gift for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time was not something he was growing out of in a hurry.

"Why does it always have to be about Go?" Touya yelled, the tension returning to his voice along with the volume.

Nase couldn't believe he'd said it – if there was someone who seemed always and only to be about Go it was surely Touya Akira. But then, when everyone else saw HIM like that, perhaps it wasn't so easy to live with.

"Gentlemen, I have to ask you to leave immediately."

Shindou and Touya were staring one another down. Neither replied nor moved. Now was the time to make an exit. She pulled on their arms until Shindou followed and Touya shook her off and made his own way to the door.

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In following days, it was rumoured that Touya and Shindou had a bust-up, but people just raised their eyebrows ‒ they'd seen it all before.

It also rumoured that Go players were getting a frosty reception at the _Jade Dewdrop_, but who cared, most people preferred the NcDo anyway.

But, most importantly, it was rumoured that Nase Asumi was hot favourite for passing the pro exam this year. She knew that Shindou Hikaru had a lot to do with that.

Touya returned to the calm politeness he had always shown her, but she wondered what he really thought ‒ Touya could hide anything he wanted from anyone... except when he was angry with Shindou Hikaru.

**END**

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**Author note: **a big thank you to **Awintea** for beta reading and helpful suggestions. Also to Terri, Barbie and Lisa for their input and encouragement**  
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Hikaru no Go is the property of Hotta and Obata, this in a non-profit-making fanfiction


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